Journey to Antarctica 26th November

Departing from Heathrow, the first leg of the journey was an 11 hour flight to Cape Town. We arrived on Saturday 26th November in a very comfortable 24 centigrade.

Each stage of this journey is punctuated by the time to stow away our baggage (probably around 80 pieces between us) however it is clear that everyone works as a team forming the typical BAS chain to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible – bodes well for the project.

When we arrived we met up with the Antarctic Logistics Centre International (ALCI) guide, we had a short briefing, with the full briefing scheduled for Monday and onward flight to the Russian base Novo intended for Tuesday morning. At the ALCO briefing we needed to provide our kit bag, our main hold luggage the sleeping system bag and will not have access until we arrive in Novo and then not immediately. Hence we had to extract from the kitbag insulated boots, insulated boiler suit, jacket, socks, hat and neck cover, gloves, sunglasses and add these to a flight bag provided in the kitbag. This enables us during the flight to adjust our clothing suitable for the cold and windy conditions on the blue ice runway.